4 December 2025 (Thursday)
Thursday of the First Week of Advent.
Advent Weekday/ Saint John of Damascus, Priest, Religious, Doctor.
Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:
First Reading: Isaiah 26: 1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 118: 1 and 8-9, 19-21, 25-27
Alleluia: Isaiah 55: 6
Gospel: Matthew 7: 21, 24-27
First Reading: Isaiah 26: 1-6
In that day shall this canticle be sung the land of Juda. Sion the city of our strength a saviour, a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein. Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in. The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee. You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever. For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 118: 1 and 8-9, 19-21, 25-27
R. (26) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
or
R. Alleluia.
Give praise to Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man. It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.
R. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
or
R. Alleluia.
Open ye to me the gates of justice: I will go into them, and give praise to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it. I will give glory to thee because thou hast heard me: and art become my salvation.
R. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
or
R. Alleluia.
O Lord, save me: O Lord, give good success. Blessed be he that cometh in the name Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he hath shone upon us.
R. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
or
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia: Isaiah 55: 6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call him while he is near.
(1. Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come! Buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money, free!
2. Why spend money on what cannot nourish and your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.
3. Pay attention, come to me; listen, and you will live. I shall make an everlasting covenant with you in fulfilment of the favours promised to David.
4. Look, I have made him a witness to peoples, a leader and lawgiver to peoples.
5. Look, you will summon a nation unknown to you, a nation unknown to you will hurry to you for the sake of Yahweh your God, because the Holy One of Israel has glorified you.
6. Seek out Yahweh while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near.
7. Let the wicked abandon his way and the evil one his thoughts. Let him turn back to Yahweh who will take pity on him, to our God, for he is rich in forgiveness;
8. for my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares Yahweh.
9. For the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.
10. For, as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilising it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat,
11. so it is with the word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do.
12. Yes, you will go out with joy and be led away in safety. Mountains and hills will break into joyful cries before you and all the trees of the countryside clap their hands.
13. Cypress will grow instead of thorns, myrtle instead of nettles. And this will be fame for Yahweh, an eternal monument never to be effaced).
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Matthew 7: 21, 24-27
Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.
For our reflection today:
Jesus is the living Word of God. When he taught, people recognized in his words the divine authority itself and they felt the Lord’s closeness, his merciful love, and praised God. In every epoch and in every place those who have the grace of knowing God, especially through reading the holy Gospel, are fascinated by him. They recognize that in his preaching, in his actions and in his Person, he reveals the true face of God to us and at the same time reveals us to ourselves. This gives us the joy of being children of the Father who is in Heaven, and points out to us the solid foundation on which to build our life. Yet human beings often do not build their action and life on this identity; they prefer the sands of ideology, power, success and money, believing they will find in these things stability and the answer to the irrepressible demand for happiness and fullness that they carry in their soul. And as for us, on what do we wish to build our life? Who can truly respond to the restlessness of the human heart? Christ is the rock of our life! He is the eternal and definitive Word who overcomes every kind of adversity, difficulty or hardship (cf. Verbum Domini, n. 10). (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 6 March 2011)
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)
No comments:
Post a Comment